Now I know where the refrigerator magnets have been disappearing to.

I haven't done any quilting at all since Esme¹ was born and it's been driving me crazy. I keep seeing really awesome projects online and they keep inspiring me to get my machine out and put the pedal to the carpet, but I haven't felt like I had the time. Now that a friend and I are getting together with no kids to hang out and do some sewing I finally had an excuse to work on something!

What I really wanted to do was just to forget about all of my old projects and start something new.² I can't bring myself to do it, though -- I've got to finish off one of those UFOs. So I picked a quilt I started about three years ago -- the oldest one that I have still unfinished, as a matter of fact. It was supposed to be a queen size quilt for myself, but it's been hiding in the back of my close fort too long and I kinda don't like it anymore. Plus, I don't want to quilt something that big.³ So I decided to make it two lap quilts, front and back, instead. Here's what it looks like at this stage. I think I may have laid out the blocks a little wrong. Not the end of the world.

It was from a pattern called Streak of Lightning that I found in a book. Unsurprisingly, it looked a lot better in the book.⁴ To get an idea of what it should have looked like, see this quilt here. I just really didn't have enough contrast between my lights and darks and I used several discount fabrics that I talked myself into and I ended up hating.⁵⁶

So wish me luck! I'm thinking I'll keep one and, if they turn out okay, I'll try to sell the other. I start work tomorrow, so hopefully I'll have some progress to report.

And one more thing: when I was taking pictures of the quilt, Atticus was desperate for me to photograph him as well.⁷ So here he is in all his unbridled glory. Do you still think he's astute and mysterious? Oh, and I know you're wondering -- that's a refrigerator letter magnet. I believe it's "L".

1Justin was worried about using our kids' names on the internet, so I'll be using their middle names. They sound even more mysterious and astute this way, don't you think?

2And that's not a bad thing. It's pretty much required if you want to be a quilter. It's like our secret handshake, but not at all. We don't all ramble this much. Also, I just made all that up. I've only ever been friends with one other quilter, so I have no idea what we as a conglomerate are like.

3That's why my second-oldest quilt isn't finished. I mean, seriously. I only have a standard machine! You would hate it if you tried it, I assure you.

4This happens to me way, way too often.

5Like that stupid lime green polka-dot one. Gross.

6Also, that was a really long run on sentence.

7You can't blame me that my pictures are lousy, by the way. These are taken indoors under glaring light. I can't cope with these conditions!